


Love Will Remember

by audreyslove



Series: Lucky Charm [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-15 02:00:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16053092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audreyslove/pseuds/audreyslove
Summary: based on Ana's lovely art for #inspiredbyoq week, here's a little short ditty in the mac and roni verse. :)





	Love Will Remember

Inspired by this amazing art by [@EvillyQueenie](https://twitter.com/evillyqueenie)

 

 

Robin first notices the decor of Roni’s the day after he takes the memory potion.

He had chuckled to himself later about how odd Mac had thought it that such a dive bar always had fresh apples in any season, how they were used in so many of her cocktails when most of Roni’s drinks were very… plain.

He shares her love of apples, of course.  It’s Seattle, after all, and apples are the cash crop of the state.  But still, it was a bit unusual for the both of them to have an establishment with so many apple themed drinks.

Then there are small crowns above random signs - the “please seat yourself” sign was decorated with one.  There was a little framed “R” with a crown hanging up above that wall, as well.

There’s a bicycle with a basket oddly hanging in the corner he knows was a subconscious tribute to her sister.

And as amusing as that is, he’s really blown away by the other items, one in particular.  The nondescript, generic looking sign. The crossed arrows with Roni’s underneath.

Roland had signed his name with those arrows in that pattern.  “Roland Hood” with two cross-crossed arrows ever so carefully placed between his first and last name.

Then there are other arrows and feathers decorating the place in the oddest of ways.  Pictures of arrows hung up as decoration, a bow even propped up in an odd corner.

A beautiful quill with a long feather in a glass case.  

Pictures of trees deep in the forest that seem so out of place, just hanging in frames.

Her home is no different.  Feathers and arrow printed throw pillows, apple shaped salt and pepper shakers, a metal bookmark with a crown at the top, pops of green everywhere, the smell of pine circulating the room through air fresheners.

And then there is… Regina's body.

Roni liked tattoos, it seems.  There’s a tantalizing feather on her right rib and on her left hip a little “Q” with the sign of a spade next to it.

Perhaps she saw herself as the Queen of Spades even as Roni.  

The thought makes him sad.  But on a lighter note, he notices the arrow markings on her upper arm and the interesting tattoo on her shoulder.  There are two crossed arrows, making four equal triangle shaped spaces. One letter of her name fills each of hers spaces, a little crown decorating the top of the “R”.  

A crown and arrows intertwined in her identity, and in themselves.

It’s touching, really.

Regina doesn’t bring it up.  They have lots of other things to talk about.  Still, he keeps seeing signs of himself everywhere.

It’s when he notices her bookshelf has “Adventures of Robin Hood” next to “Fairest of Them All: The Tale of the Wicked Queen” that he decides to comment on this decor.

Regina has been working for hours to break this curse and keep Henry safe, but she’s exhausted, she needs a break. She’s just spilled to him all her frustrations and he’s convinced her to take a bit of a rest, to clear her head of all those difficult thoughts and just to watch something mindless.  

But he can feel her all tense, not relaxing the way he wants, and a bit of teasing her may be just what she needs. What she needs is a moment to laugh or at least, a moment to sass him.

“So…” Robin says, as she is curled up next to him on the couch, “I’ve noticed a theme in Roni’s decoration style.” He picks up the arrow patterned pillow and playfully thwacks it again her shoulder.

He hears her laugh softly, then extracts herself from his arms so she can stare him down, playfully.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Mmm, I like Roni’s sign above the bar.  Especially those arrows.”

“I was paying tribute to someone,” Regina says with an overly dramatic sigh.

“Anyone I know?” Robin asks coyly, winking at her.

“No, you don’t know him.” Regina waves her hand.  “Just this gorgeous man named Orlando Bloom. He played an archer once in a movie.  I was _very_ enamoured.”

The way she teases him fills his heart with excitement.  He has missed their banter, those little jokes they shot at each other across the room, just to rile, to get attention, some odd type of foreplay he could never get enough from the moment he met her.

“Clearly you were enamoured,” he says, stroking down her tattooed shoulder.  “I see arrows and bows all over the place. I particularly like when they are paired with crowns.  Was this Orlando Bloom also a queen? He sounds it, from the name.”

That draws out a laugh in her, and she shoots him a devilish smile.  “No. But he did have long, beautiful blonde hair.”

“Huh,” Robin says, his face screws up as he muses, “I don’t find much interest in blondes myself.”  He thinks of Maleficent, and cannot help but adding, “though I do know we differ on that, don’t we?”

“We definitely do,” Regina purs.  “Though I must admit, my affinity for arrows has nothing to do with Orlando Bloom.” Regina raises her eyebrow.  

“I knew it,” Robin smiles, pressing a kiss to her brow.

“If I am being honest, it appears I’ve always had a deep-seated, intense, overwhelming love for… Merida,” she teases, a twinkle in her eye.  “I must have missed her so much.”

“Merida, huh?” Robin asks in mock offense.

“Well yes, who else could it be?” Regina shrugs.  “I don’t know any other famous archers.”

“Oh, you don’t?” Robin asks, reaching around her side to do the one thing he almost never does.

He finds that ticklish spot by her ribs and his fingers dance against her skin until she shrieks in uninhibited laughter.  

“Robin, stop!” she pleads, but she’s enjoying this, her face is flushed and she is happy _._ He’s addicted to the sound of her the look, the smell of her at this moment.  He can’t get enough.

“You don’t know any other famous archers, huh?” Robin asks.  

She’s laughing too hard to respond properly, and it’s true, he’s still lightly tickling her, but it’s not as intentional now, and he wonders if this laughter may be unrelated.

“I don’t— I — haaa! Robin, I—”

“Robin Hood, you mean?  Robin Hood, the most infamous archer of the Enchanted Forest?  What I can do you for, my queen?” he asks, his fingers slow to stop as he presses a kiss to her lips.  

She deepens it, pulling his head closer, her hands greedily threading through his hair, then anchoring behind his head.  

When she pulls away, she’s smiling so brightly, her face so pure, so beautifully angelic it makes his heart hurt.

He knows that smile and he knows that look he’s giving to her.  It’s the one she doesn’t show to the world often or ever. It’s too real, shows too much of herself.

“Roni didn’t know why she loved arrows,” she admits softly.  “She just… did. And feathers, you asked me about that feathers, when I was Roni.”

He did.  Mostly because the one on her side is fucking sexy as all get out, but also because it seemed to be meaningful for some reason.

“Because Cal gave you a silver necklace with a feather pendant on it and told you he always thought of feathers when he thought of you because you were angelic and free.  You lost the necklace when your roommate borrowed it and never gave it back. So you tattooed feathers on your body so you’d never be without them.

“There never was a Cal,” Regina reminds.  Robin’s throat goes dry. “Roland, though, he gave me a feather from your quill.  Zelena lost it, and I hated that I never had that. Every time I saw a feather, I thought of you.  I don’t think that ever changed.”

He always assumed Cal was Daniel.  It would make sense. Daniel is dead, and Robin is alive, so why would the curse invent a dead persona?

But her history was not only one lost love but two.  For some reason, he assumed Maleficent and Daniel. He didn’t expect to be the great love that she lost tragically.  

“The curse tries to give you a new identity,” she explains.  “It tries to completely erase every part of you and replace it with something different. Especially things and people who still exist.  But I know from when I cast the curse the first time that it doesn’t always work. Some things are so ingrained in a person that they cannot be erased.  I’m sure the curse didn’t want Roni believing she had a son, and yet, I believed I had one and we were estranged. There are some things that are too essential to your identity to strip away.  They are there, in your bones, in your blood, so even if you erase what’s in the mind….” She shrugs. “I didn’t need to know who I was to know that I loved you. I didn’t need to know who you were to know.  It was just there the whole time, fighting to come to the surface, seeping out in tattoos and gaudy decorations.”

He’s touched beyond words.  Something that he meant only to tease her about has now become yet another conversation that’s stolen his breath, made his heart pound hard.

“You haven’t mentioned the fact that The Green Man has an oddly-placed apple on the front door sign,” he points out.  “Or my affinity for a good cider. “

“Everyone in Washington loves apples,” Regina reminds, rolling her eyes slightly.  But she’s touched too. He can tell.

“And what of the oddly placed crown decorum that is… well, everywhere?” Robin asks, raising an eyebrow playfully.

“That…. was a bit odd for an Irish sports pub,” she admits, giving him a sly smile.

“And odd for the home of a bachelor,” he reminds, thinking of a framed painting of a castle he owns that very much looks like Regina's castle in the Enchanted Forest.

She says nothing, just smiles.

He’s winning.

“I used to dream of you,” he admits.  “Before I knew it was you.  But you know that.”

She blushes. Back when he was Mac, she had caught him having a sexy dream he had admitted was recurring.  A woman undressing by the fire. There’s food around, and a blanket, as if they were having a bit of an indoor picnic. He remembers being ravenous for he, tastes the wine and decadence on her lips as he kisses her with passion.  

It was an odd dream at the time.  It’s not so odd anymore, is it?

He thinks of their first little picnic, when the passion and the foreplay became overwhelming, yet the desire to connect and talk was just as strong.  It was so sensual, so meaningful, that moment could never be truly erased from his memory, as hard as the curse may have tried to do it.

“Just so you know,” Regina drawls, “I expect you to be redecorating your bar and house immediately. Crowns, castles and apples are _my_ things.”

“And will you be getting rid of the arrows and feathers, milady?” Robin tilts his head, waiting for her cheeky response.  

She stands up from the sofa only to sit back down on his lap, straddling his legs as she settles on him, her arms wrapped around his neck.  She kisses him, then shakes her head.

“No fucking way.”


End file.
